Tag: space

NASA reveals ambitious multi-spacecraft plan to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth

That NASA intends to collect a sample from Mars and return it to Earth is well known — they’ve said so many times. But how would they go about scooping up soil from the surface of a distant planet and getting it back here? With a plan that sounds straight…

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Coronavirus rattles NASA, but Commercial Crew and Mars Perseverance rover are on track

Most of NASA’s facilities around the country have been shut down, and while some teams can work (and drive a Mars rover) from home, others are knuckling down to get some crucial missions out the door — or face a half-billion dollar late fee, said agency head Jim Bridenstine. In…

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Scientists find an Earth-like planet hiding in old Kepler data

The search for habitable exoplanets has made a discovery in an unexpected place: data that had supposedly been searched years ago. Scientists combing over early data from the Kepler space telescope have found an Earth-like planet, Kepler-1649c, burie… Source

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New Earth-sized planet found in habitable sweet-spot orbit around a distant star

Researchers have discovered a new Earth-sized planet orbiting a star outside our solar system. The planet, called Kepler-1649c, is only around 1.06 times larger than Earth, making it very similar to our own planet in terms of physical dimensions. It’s also quite close to its star, orbiting at a distance…

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NASA’s Curiosity team is operating the Mars rover from home

It’s hard enough in the first place having to drive an astronomically expensive rover around a planet millions of miles away. Doing it from home seems like a pretty big ask — but it turns out NASA’s Curiosity team is up to it. The space agency posted today about how…

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Rocket Lab inks deal to carry Japanese startup Synspective’s first satellite into orbit

The well-funded Japanese space startup Synspective has tapped launch provider Rocket Lab to take its first Earth observation satellite to orbit. Launch is planned for late 2020, and the company’s StriX–α craft will be the sole payload. Synspective was founded in 2018 and by mid-2019 had raised about $100 million,…

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